125 No. 9th Street

Address: 125 North 9^th Street

Legal Description: Part of the South Half of Lot 81

Building: Citizens Bank Building/Masonic Temple

1872 Vacant Lot

1875 Emily Northup purchased the lot from the State of Nebraska and R. B. Spear. A two-story frame building was built shortly thereafter. One or two other frame buildings may have been located on the lot on North 9^th Street.

1884 J. Jensen and David Griffith purchased an interest in the Citizens Bank and made that their business after January 1. They erected a new building on the corner where Jensen’s law office was.

1885 The Northup Building on the corner of Center & Court streets was moved and in its place a building was built that was 24 x 60, two stories high and occupied by the Citizens Bank.

1885 Billings and Donisthorpe moved to the new post office building from the Northrup Building.

1886 The law firm of Billings and Donisthorpe dissolved their partnership.

1886 The old Post Office building at Geneva, occupied by a meat market, was moved next door to the new Post Office (117 No. 9^th) on Center Street to make room for a brick building on Court Street.

1890 The post office was moved to the center of the street while the new Citizen’s Bank was being built. After the new Citizen’s Bank was built, the post office was located in the north part of the building.

1890 Green and Spring carried a full line of jewelry and watches in the post office.

1891 In May, C. L. Rathbun sold his news business in the post office room to Frank Crawford.

1891 Charles Spangler purchased the post office newsstand from Frank Crawford.

1897 Hyde & Son put a new showcase in their post office newsstand at the post office.

1902 Hyde moved his newsstand to 116 No. 10^th.

1905 The Post Office moved to the Picard building at 139 No. 9^th. Picards built a new building containing two rooms. The Post Office was in the north building that had alley access.

1905 A. W. Phillips of Sterling, Co., opened a new racket store in the vacated post office and sold clothing and other variety goods.

1906 Dr. H. L. Smith gave the Geneva library a twenty-one year lease on the building formerly occupied by the post office. The library had been housed on the third floor of the Masonic Temple under the direction of the Masons and Odd Fellows. It became the property of the city of Geneva. Miss Nellie Williams was appointed the first librarian.

1906 In May, D. C. Mowry moved his tools and material from the building formerly occupied by Hyde’s newsstand.

1906 In May, T. C. Patterson moved his cigar factory from the Union block to the building on Center street vacated by C. E. Hyde.

1907 T. C. Patterson closed his cigar factory and shipped his goods to Los Angeles.

1908 A. W. Phillips moved his racket store to the Fillmore house.

1910 The building burned down in February. The Picard Pharmacy advertised that their Christmas display would be in the windows here, using the entire foot of the “L” (121 & 125 No. 9^th). The west entrance to the store was located here.

1910 Geneva City Library was moved into the Baptist Church at 11^th and G after the fire that burned the building. The library suffered a loss of books. Later the library was housed in a rear room in the Dempster Block.

1912 John Williams sold his interest in the barbershop to his partner, F. C. Tallmadge. Mr. Tallmadge put in a bathtub and added a third chair. Emmet Andrews was employed there.

1913 C. A. Propst, who had been operating a barbershop under the Geneva State Bank for some years, bought the Floyd Tallmadge barbershop next door south of the Signal Office. This location was also referred to as the Dr. Smith room (one door south of the Signal office.) Mr. Propst operated five chairs in his new place of business and they were as follows: C. A. Propst, William Wilkins, Charles Mattson, Will Henderson, Harry Johnson and Gus Madison as an assistant.

1915 In July several deals were completed that consolidated the barber shops of Propst (125 N 9th) and Fiedler (896 ½ G).

1915 C. A. Propst sold his shop to Bren Sarratt of Strang. Mr. Propst retired from the barber business in Geneva. The barber shop remained at this location. Elmer Waite continued his business in the basement of the Geneva State Bank. Even though their businesses were in two different locations, Mr. Waite and Mr. Sarratt were in partnership. They eventually consolidated both shops into the basement of the Geneva State Bank location and employed five barbers.

1915 In September, W. E. “Peg” Brown opened a new photography studio here in the room recently vacated by the barbers, between the Signal office on the north and Picard’s Pharmacy on the south.

1918 Dr. H. L. Smith, owner of the property at the corner of Court and Center Streets made improvements to the building. Three unit fronts were installed on the Court Street entrance for the Picard Pharmacy and one each on Center Street for the Picard Pharmacy and the Brown Studio.

1919 In October, Brown’s Studio moved to new quarters over the 10-cent store (Hested’s). The vacant room was leased by the Picard Pharmacy and a doorway was cut through the partition between the two rooms. Because of the new Edison business and expansion in other departments, the added floor space was a fine addition.

1920 Picard’s used this area as a music room where you could browse through the latest records and try them out on the phonograph before buying.

1933 The Sanborn Maps show the north half of the foot of the “L” and the entrance at 121 No. 9^th as part of the Picard Pharmacy, and the south half as a separate unit. It remained this way until the late 1980’s when the entrance at 125 No. 9^th was closed.

1986 The drug store closed off the west entrance and extended the room at 121 No. 9^th into all but about the north 8 feet of that space.

1986 The Studio, owned and operated by Pat Grothe and Peggy Oliva, moved here from offices in the old gym at 141 So. 11^th. They used both 121 & 125 No. 9^th.

1997 The Studio moved around the corner to 908 G Street.

2007 Pastor Tim Bullock opened a Baptist church here and used the 121 No. 9^th location as well.

2011 The Baptist church moved to the Senior Center at 1120 F Street.

2020 This was vacant.

This was ongoing as of the last posting.